Saturday, July 25, 2009

I'm sure you have seen the online ads about automated marketing systems. You know, the kind of systems in which you just register with them and they will automatically make money for you? Just sign on with a couple of them and you will be laughing all the way to the bank.

In case you are interested in doing what I just said, don't! I just put that in for fun and to illustrate that advice is cheap, and that anybody can give advice.

So seriously, what is the advice I'm talking about? What is this one piece of advice, above all others, that will equip you for a great start in starting and running a successful online home based business?

Get A Good Teacher

You can't go wrong there. No point reinventing the wheel, right? Just find somebody who's been there and done that and you're good. My advice would be to take your time and find somebody who is friendly and patient enough to answer your stupid questions without rolling her eyes. :)

Never Have Less Than Great Content

Nobody can argue with that. Web surfers might not be the most intelligent bunch of people you can find, but I'm going to bet my bottom dollar that they can smell crap a mile away. They have the luxury of millions of other sites, so really, anything other than great content is just not going to do.

The Money Is In The List

A mailing list of responsive and targeted prospects is a great asset to any home based business. Every time you create or find a new product, just send out an email and you have people queuing up to buy your product.

Conclusion

So, after all is said and done, talk is cheap. The advice that you get out on the Internet is probably worth even less. It is like reading a book on kung fu and expecting to be a master after you finish reading the book.

There is a world of difference between knowing that the best way to lose weight is to exercise and eat right, and actually carrying it out successfully. The advice you get about making money on the web is no different. Knowing it, and doing it successfully are two completely different things.

As an example, take article marketing. You have to write at least a few articles a day (the advice usually given is to write a few articles an hour!), and submit them to article directories. After a few hundred articles, or literally months of work, you will be getting traffic and making good money.

A few articles a day is not easy. And I will say that it's mind numbing work. I think it is doubtful that an average person can carry on at this pace for months, and still produce good quality articles. But I'm sure that some have done it successfully.

Other advice that you get will concentrate on building relationships with other webmasters, or doing some technical stuff, or generating as much content as possible, or...the list goes on.

Actually, nobody will be able to tell you how you can run your Internet business successfully. Even if they have done it before, there is no guarantee that you can duplicate their success by simply replicating their methods as there are a lot of other variables involved.

Your online home based business is about you, your website, your talents and your resources. By all means listen and learn from all the advice that you get out there. But when all is said and done, it is just advice. You and you alone will have to decide how to put it all together for a successful business.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

If I were to ask you whether you want to make a lot of money, what would your answer be? We are strangers but I am quite sure I know what your answer will be. You will say yes, right?

So, how are you doing so far?

You have probably asked for a raise, and maybe taken on a second job, and possibly even looking to do some freelancing in your free time - not that you have any. :)

I'm sure that you are starting to come up against a ceiling you might not have realized existed - that there are only 24 hours in a single day.

I'm guessing that you are real busy, but the money is good. You go on holiday at least once a year, dine at nice restaurants, and splurge a little when you are in the mood.

But in exchange, you give your time, your passion, and basically your life. You are always short of time, you keep missing your kid's baseball game, and you are stressed out most of the time - all for the pursuit of more money.

But among your circle of friends, there are some who "buck the trend". In some ways they are like you in that they are well-educated, intelligent and well-to-do.

But, unlike you, they seem to have a very good balance between their work and leisure time. In fact, they spend a good proportion of their work life indulging in leisure activities.

In other words, your friends seem to be able to make the same amount of money as you but they do it with much lesser time commitment, effort and stress than you.

Do you know why that is so?

There might be a myriad of different reasons why such a difference exists but I think it boils down to one statement:

"You get paid for the amount of work that you do."

You believe in it, they don't.

You look at making money as a barter trade, your time for your boss's money.

What do you think your friends will do when they are looking to make more money?

I am quite sure that working harder would not be the way that they are going to do it. Most likely they will be looking to see how they can make the money while still spending the same amount of time and effort.

Your friends know that while they have superior talent and are willing to work hard, it will only take them that far. To go the next step, that is, to make a lot of money, they need to leverage or "expand" their time, resources and talent.

So, start leveraging your time and talent instead of simply exchanging them for cash.

Friday, July 10, 2009

I'm not an Internet marketer and I'm not trying to sell you something. Instead, if you are trying to make money on the Internet or starting an online home based business, I have a simple piece of advice for you. The advice I am talking about is:

"You can't get something for nothing"

I could almost hear what you are thinking. "Who is this guy trying to fool? Does he think I am a 9 year old? I know that already!"

True. When that boyfriend of yours gives you chocolate and treats you like a queen, you know something's up. Either he wants you know what from you, or he's done something real bad and he's trying to soften you up first before telling you. Either way, the chocolate's NOT free. ;)

But do you apply the same skepticism to the online world?

There are tons of websites that promise that you will make thousands of dollars a month for work that a 9 year old can do. What's more, they tell you that you probably need to work just for an hour or two per day to make that amount.

And they are thriving because despite their ridiculous claims, many people still get duped. It seems that when we come online, we leave behind our healthy skepticism.

Admit it. You have been tempted, right? Probably gave in to the temptation and lost a couple of dollars, right?

And I won't think too much about the money lost when you decide to take a chance with these type of sites. But I would be very mindful of the time wasted on such sites. Money lost can be earned again, but time lost is gone forever.

These sites are on every single corner of the web.

Engage your healthy skepticism the next time you encounter such a site, and click the back button. A full time income on the web can be accomplished, but only if you spend your time productively.

Monday, July 6, 2009

This blog has a rather interesting collection of free background graphics. They quite unlike any that I have seen on the web in that they are quite stunning, with "bold patterns and weird shapes". They are definitely not suitable for use as a background for your website but you can download the graphics and use them on your computer desktop. Or if you are a graphic designer, I'm quite sure you can find some uses for them.

A new graphic is released about once a week. The graphics are all 256 pixels X 256 pixels in size and can be tiled seamlessly. They are free and there are very little restrictions on their use.

In addition, the blog also has free website templates and WordPress themes for download. Restrictions on how they can be used are also very minimal.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Niche marketing can be defined as marketing to a subset of a larger market segment. Although the market size will not be very big, the needs of such a market will have the advantage of being much more focused.

In the online world, niche marketing is primarily concerned with niches in which the search engine competition is low. Normally, you will carry out the following steps:

Research keywords that a surfer will use to find what they want. Look out for those particular keywords which has a good potential for profit and not a lot of competition in the search engine rankings.

Get other websites and blogs to link to your website using the usual link building techniques like link exchanges, article submissions, directory submissions, etc.

Keep building those anchored backlinks until you get to the number one spot in Google, or at least to the top of the first page.

You can do it in many different combinations but the basic steps are listed above.

Cost

In my opinion, you must pay for your domain name and web hosting. They will cost you less than $11 per month. The advantages of paying for those far weighs the small cost incurred.

Other than the obligatory domain name and web hosting, there are some services that can increase your productivity:

Good content for your blogs, articles and websites is key to your success and, unfortunately, also takes the most time to generate. Paying for articles to be written might be a good investment.

Submitting your article to the various websites, blogs and article directories will take up a lot of your time as there are hundreds, if not thousands, of them out there. Article submission software, especially those that avoids sending out duplicate content, is well worth the investment.

Getting other webmasters to exchange links with you would also take up a large portion of your time. There are some services that brings together webmasters interested in link exchanges, and some would even monitor the backlinks resulting from link exchanges for you.

Recommended Skills

A relatively good command of English would definitely be recommended, especially if you intend to write the content and articles yourself. You don't have to be a writer, but you must at least be able to write grammatically correct sentences and be disciplined enough to spell check your work.

There is a lot of computer and web related work to do. On the computer, you might find yourself touching up some graphics, or installing a software application, or even doing some html. On the web, you would probably need to update your name servers and configure your hosting account. You don't need to be an expert to do all these, but some level of computer literacy would be needed.

I have broken down niche marketing into a series of simple steps. But those steps cannot be looked at in isolation. You must look at those steps as part of a business, a niche marketing business. As a niche marketer, you are the boss of your niche marketing business. And the decisions that you make for your business must be made not as the niche marketer but as the boss of the niche marketing business.